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In "Swimming with Sharks," the Colorado Springs Independent looks into how predatory lenders are eating credit-hungry debtors alive in this faltering economy. Terje Langeland writes that, "Julio Bonilla just wanted to borrow $4,000 to pay for some improvements to his split-level home ... By the time he walked out of the loan office, the 47-year-old Bonilla -- who speaks limited English -- had been talked into refinancing both of his mortgages, consolidating various credit-card debts and purchasing thousands of dollars worth of insurance, all rolled into one new loan totaling $164,000." Now his wife has lost her job, and they can't make the payments on the high-interest loan. Worse yet, the practice is perfectly legal.

Continue ReadingPredatory Lenders Devour the Unwary

At least 350 friends and relatives of Darrell Oldham gathered for a memorial service Monday in Seattle to mark the passing of one of the most beloved members of the alternative newsweekly tribe. Oldham died Feb. 16 of lung cancer. He was co-founder of Seattle Weekly and one of the original organizers of the National Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, now known as AAN.

Continue ReadingHundreds Attend Memorial Service for AAN Founder
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It first appeared to be a simple stickup gone bad, but police investigating the killing of pet-shop owner Sarkis Antonyan found much more than that. Christine Pelisek and Charles Rappleye writing for LA Weekly, discovered that for more than a decade, Antonyan had run scams and opened new enterprises for a burgeoning Armenian crime scene, including massive rip-offs from the $450 million state recycling program. Antonyan's rise and fall provide a rare window on the life behind the suburban facade of one of L.A.'s most anonymous immigrant communities.

Continue ReadingPet Shop Murder

Laura Miller, new mayor of Dallas, is the third politician with a strong connection to the alternative newspaper business since November to become mayor of a major American city. "There is definitely a trend in urban politics to be more progressive,” says John Rowley of the national political consulting firm Fletcher & Rowley in Nashville, Tenn. This shift makes urban voters “more receptive to the kinds of issues alt-weeklies like to belabor,” Matt Pulle writes for AAN News.

Continue ReadingAnother Former AANie Rises to Power

"Finally, a newspaper war," writes Carlos Santos in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Journalistic headbutting. A scramble for ads. Recruiting skirmishes. It's a grudge match to boot. Start the presses. Since earlier this month, two hip, breezy, irreverent, free weekly alternative newspapers have been locked in a bitter battle for advertising dollars and readers in a small market likely to sustain only one." In this corner, AAN-member C*Ville Weekly, and in the opposite corner, The Hook, launched by C*Ville's co-founder and former editor, Hawes Spencer.

Continue ReadingFired Editor Launches Rival Weekly

National advertising in alternative weeklies nosedived the first few weeks of 2002. "We're kind of on a shoestring now, but that's how we started," says AWN Executive Director Mark Hanzlik. At least one AAN paper is pulling out the stops to shore up the local ad base: Chicago Reader has restructured its ad rates so that some advertisers now are paying 15 percent less.

Continue ReadingNational Ads Take Cliff-Dive

Scott Ware, editor of The Sun of Bremerton, Wash., recalls his days marathoning with Ken Neill, publisher of the Memphis Flyer. Neill recently underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery, and now Ware is running again and watching the biscuits. "Now, let's start thinking about running the Dublin again — even if this time, it's only the 10K," Ware concludes.

Continue ReadingMemphis Flyer Publisher Sends Heart Wake-Up Call
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Sometime this fall, a group of the most influential black lawyers in the country -- including Harvard's Charles Ogletree and O.J. Simpson's attorney Johnnie Cochran -- are expected to walk into a federal courthouse and file suit against the people of the United States. The Hartford Advocate's Alistair Highet looks at the arguments for and against reparations. "What the lawsuit will say is a matter of conjecture, but it is expected to go like this: From 1619 until 1865, the white people of this country enslaved more than four million people of African descent who were bought and sold in this continent like farm animals. The white people of the country made a lot of money from them. Now the descendants of these Africans want some of that money back," he writes.

Continue ReadingSlavery’s Price